The Pursuit of the Blissful

International Institute of Management (IIM) released a policy white paper aptly titled ???The American Pursuit of Unhappiness - Gross National Happiness (GNH)???. The paper provides an analysis of the mental and emotional health liabilities produced by the current American socioeconomic system. It also proposes several policy reforms to help address these liabilities.

Under the root cause analysis section, the author asserts that the ???The ideologies and governments of this century that promised happiness, have left people with more material possessions, but less psychological well-being. Many of those people are emotionally bankrupt and unhappy. The demands of life in our current socioeconomic system require that we keep running and running with little or no breaks. With increasing life costs, economic demands, and social and work pressures, most people are suffering from chronic stress, pain, anxiety, fear or anger. The term "rat race" applies more today than ever. Many people eventually experience this as burnout, exhaustion and/or depression. Many Americans are feeling unhappy at home and at work.

According to Med Yones, the author of the white paper, ???Like most world governments, the U.S. Government???s main concern is economic growth: even security, health, education and foreign policies are designed to promote economic growth. Governments have metrics to monitor your money: they use metrics such as Gross National Products (GNP) and consumer confidence to monitor and track economic health. Do they use a metric to measure people???s own well-being? No.???

The author refers to Bhutan's King Jigme Wangchuck who coined the term Gross National Happiness (GNH) to emphasize the holistic values of economic development policies. The paper builds on that concept to provide recommendations that address the six main public policy areas: Government, Economics, Work, Media, Education and Environment. I wish our leaders take into consideration the proposed recommendations to increase America???s Gross National Happiness (GNH).

The complete text of the paper is available at:
http://www.iim-edu.org/grossnationalhappiness/index.htm

International Institute of Management (IIM) released a policy white paper aptly titled ???The American Pursuit of Unhappiness - Gross National Happiness (GNH) ???. The paper provides an analysis of the mental and emotional health liabilities produced by the current American socioeconomic system. It also proposes several policy reforms to help address these liabilities.

Under the root cause analysis section, the author asserts that the ???The ideologies and governments of this century that promised happiness, have left people with more material possessions, but less psychological well-being. Many of those people are emotionally bankrupt and unhappy. The demands of life in our current socioeconomic system require that we keep running and running with little or no breaks. With increasing life costs, economic demands, and social and work pressures, most people are suffering from chronic stress, pain, anxiety, fear or anger. The term "rat race" applies more today than ever. Many people eventually experience this as burnout, exhaustion and/or depression. Many Americans are feeling unhappy at home and at work.

According to Med Yones, the author of the white paper, "Like most world governments, the U.S. Government???s main concern is economic growth: even security, health, education and foreign policies are designed to promote economic growth. Governments have metrics to monitor your money: they use metrics such as Gross National Products (GNP) and consumer confidence to monitor and track economic health. Do they use a metric to measure people???s own well-being? No."

The author refers to Bhutan's King Jigme Wangchuck who coined the term Gross National Happiness (GNH) to emphasize the holistic values of economic development policies. The paper builds on that concept to provide recommendations that address six main public policy areas: Government, Economics, Work, Media, Education and Environment. I wish our leaders take into consideration the proposed recommendations to increase America???s Gross National Happiness (GNH).

The complete text of the report is available at:
http://www.iim-edu.org/grossnationalhappiness/index.htm

Come to Australia if you want to relax and be happy......................there , i've done my bit for G'day U.S.A
andy from oz

Personally, I think happiness is an internal thing. I've looked at this for many years now. For a while I thought if I only had more money, I'd be happy. I observed the wealthy for a while and discovered I was wrong. Some of the wealthiest people are the most unhappy with themselves and their lives. The poor seem to be more often than not focused on survival and wishing they were wealthy. The middle class are wishing they were wealthier too. After long searching, I come to feel that living my life from a place of integrity brings me the most happiness. I can go to sleep with a clear conscience and am not guilt-ridden. I can do this no matter how much money I have, no matter where I live or no matter what religion I belong to. I try to keep company with those who move through life with similar ethics. It works for me.

agree agree

Americans are unhappy because there are 6 foot piles of garbage on our cities' streets - oops, that's Italy;
our elections are a sham - -oops, that's Pakistan; we are starving and sick with aids, too weak to swat the flies off our baby's head - oops, that's Africa; our government determines how much and what kind of education we receive, what job we work at and where we live - oops, that was the Soviet Union; we are killing the atmosphere because we exhale carbon dioxide - oops, that's volcanoes; we are killing trees by using toilet paper - oops, trees grow on tree farms and are replanted; we are the biggest killers of our environment - oops, that's China ( all of our factories moved there for cheap labor and no anti-pollution laws)
OK, we're not happy because the media, the politicians, the movies and the music lyrics tell us we should not be!

Happiness is a relative term, and it can change at any moment. I found if I was happy at my job, with my situation at work workinghealthy.com really helped me with my situation at work especially setting up my work environment.

My true joy was found when I got rid of the irrational trappings and emotional baggage of religion. I would have never suspected that becoming an atheist could make one so happy. The American President Madison said it best ??? "Religious bondage shackles and debilitates the mind and unfits it for every noble enterprise, every expanded prospect."
-James Madison, letter to William Bradford, April 1, 1774

Looking for happiness is not the problem. Were looking for it in the wrong places. A lot of scientific studies have come out recently on factors that effect happiness but this article only mentions three of them and leaves out any revealing details. As for the "World Happiness Database" upon which most of this is based, it is a great idea but unfortunately plagued with great obstacles...if you ask a Japanese and American if they are satisfied with life you will get entirely different answers for cultural reasons. Americans often feel failures if they are not seen as being happy, yet East Asians feel bad if they confess to being too self satisfied, this reflects badly on their sense of interpersonal responsibility....

BTh--money makes me extremely happy

Someone has lost thier mind--a shared purpose that can be defined in 1 sentence will make all Americans happy??An ad clogan maybe? And you advise "energy independence"? Oh yeah, that''ll do it. I need no shared purpose to be happy. I don't want everyone to think like me or share my ideals, which is why I actually am happy. I live in a city I love, do what i like and have an interesting mix of friends. If only the rich were not pushing me out of my neighborhood in Brooklyn, I'd continue to be happy until I drop. Maybe you are all too needy?

ditto chatmant: where's the list? articles like these should have a list. else what's the point of ur discovery-travel? a list to summarize an article's 'discovery's what i learned in journalism class...

I think our country, as a whole, would be happier if their was a shared sense of purpose- a very real, definite purpose that could be described in a sentence and that every segment of society could buy into, from corporate presidents, to labor unions,the US military, recent immigrants, soccer moms,etc. ,and which would offend no particular religious group, and would advance everyone's standard of living.
What comes to mind immediately is making the US energy independent with a collaborative effort between government and private enterprise.

Thanks to our "Me" and "I" President our sense of community has gone to heck in a hand basket!

It's tough to get that "feeling" when our goal seems to be to kick everyones butt, even our own.

Here's a man who makes us feel like we're getting a handout to fix a problem he's let go for several years.

Fight those wars and spend that money in foreign lands, where not one of us here at home will ever see any of the benefits. Persuit of happiness? Yeah, right!

I'm a disabled Veteran and money does not do the trick, but gimmi a job with no discrimination, which cannot be found anywhere,anymore! So this would really make me happy to see THE GREATEST COUNTRY IN THE WORLD, BE JUST THAT, AND LEAD BY EXAMPLE, NOT BY THREAT! INVEST INTO OUR OWN AND LET THE WORLD WATCH AND LEARN TO DO FOR THEMSELVES! A VETERANS DREAM! FAMILY DOES HELP, BUT NOT WHEN YOUR KIDS CAN'T FIND A DECENT JOB. EXCEPT TO JOIN THE MILITARY, AND YOU CAN SEE THE SUFFERING IN THERE EYES! AS WE SEE THOSE WHO RETURN IN TERRIBLE SHAPE, JUST TO BE SENT BACK, CAUSE SUPPORT FOR THE ACTIVE IS VERY VERY PLEASENT AND PRESENT! TILL THEY BECOME VETERANS? THEN THEY ARE THE LOST ONES, LIKE ME WITH NO FURTURE! MAKEING ALL IN THE USA HAPPY, MAKES ME HAPPY!

Vietnam and prior to
If we spent 2 Billion dollars-A DAY, 2 Billion dollars CAME BACK into the American economy-A DAY, and 100 MILLION recouped in taxes-A DAY

Iraq
We spend 2 Billion+ dollars-A DAY, 300,000, COMES BACK to the American economy-A DAY, and 100,000- recouped in taxes-A DAY

Vietnam and Iraq are the same? Bring back the great American war machine, to American soil, use the gas tax, as it was told to us, why, its there, ie: the roads
Hey
WE JUST EMPLOYED 12 MILLION, REBUILDING EVERYTHING, WITH ALT ENERGY, MAKING FAR MORE INCOME THAN MIN WAGE!

DEMOCRATIC CORE- RUN THE COUNTRY, NOT RULE THE WORLD!

TO BAD IN IRAQ WE OUTSOURCE EVERYTHING, INCLUDING INTELLIGENCE, FOR ANOTHER BILLION-THIS, IS THE BIGGEST DIFFERENCE BETWEEN VIETNAM AND IRAQ, MR PRESIDENT, HIDING UNDER THE TABLE

MY MATH IS OFF! WE WOULD EMPLOY MORE LIKE 35 MILLION! REBUILDING FACTORIES, STAFFING THEM, BUILDING WIND FARMS, STAFFING THEM, REBUILDING ALL ROADS IN OUR COUNTRY, STAFFING THAT, AND RECOUPING 100 MILLION A DAY IN TAXES, EQUATES, COUNTING THE 2 BILLION SPENT INSIDE OUR BORDERS, A DAY! YA 35 MILLION EMPLOYED AT BETTER THAN MIN WAGE IS FAR CLOSER THAN JUST 12 MILLION EMPLOYED-SORRY FOLKS MY MATH WAS OFF